Heartland Festival Shorts
My time as a Screener for the Heartland International Film Festival SHORTS was well-lived. I screened over 240 films for the festival this year, and while that may seem like a great number of films, consider that the festival received over 3100 entries, just for the Short Film competition! There are over 60 screeners worldwide that view the films for inclusion, and several advanced committees that co-review them for final judging after we're done with them. We're now currently reviewing the many feature-film length entries, expected to again take awhile to get through.
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My top list included films from many genres and styles, BUT...of course not all of my picks were included in the final entries. However...5 of them were. I was told that out of that many films and screeners that to have more than 2 of my picks included in the lineup was a very good thing. Meaning...I have good taste? Well, tastes are not all that matter at a festival.
Film festival screening and judging are very subjective kinds of things, to some degree, because "tastes" run in as many directions as there are people. However, there are basic rules to aesthetics, mechanics, and overall good judgment that form a base of criteria that almost everyone must follow to have films included in a list of "must watch" films. Each film is viewed by at LEAST 3 screeners, and at least 2 committee members to be included. Each one must pass through at least 2 levels of judgment prior to being given the "boot", meaning "not this year" or "try again next year". So it's not as subjective as it might seem, especially when the screeners, like myself, must first pass a fairly rigorous and daunting exam of our tastes and judgment by viewing a few example films and making assessments that are both numerical on a scale, and written. Each film screened by me had to be viewed for at least 5 minutes prior to moving on to another film, given a scale of 1-5, 1 being "weak", and 5 being "amazing", and also a Thumbs-Up or Down, meaning "I think this film should be included in this festival". And consideration for the guidelines must be in play there as well. THEN...we need to write a short reasoning why we came up with our judgment.
The basic bottom line summary of what we look for is summed up in the following statement:
Film festival screening and judging are very subjective kinds of things, to some degree, because "tastes" run in as many directions as there are people. However, there are basic rules to aesthetics, mechanics, and overall good judgment that form a base of criteria that almost everyone must follow to have films included in a list of "must watch" films. Each film is viewed by at LEAST 3 screeners, and at least 2 committee members to be included. Each one must pass through at least 2 levels of judgment prior to being given the "boot", meaning "not this year" or "try again next year". So it's not as subjective as it might seem, especially when the screeners, like myself, must first pass a fairly rigorous and daunting exam of our tastes and judgment by viewing a few example films and making assessments that are both numerical on a scale, and written. Each film screened by me had to be viewed for at least 5 minutes prior to moving on to another film, given a scale of 1-5, 1 being "weak", and 5 being "amazing", and also a Thumbs-Up or Down, meaning "I think this film should be included in this festival". And consideration for the guidelines must be in play there as well. THEN...we need to write a short reasoning why we came up with our judgment.
The basic bottom line summary of what we look for is summed up in the following statement:
Heartland looks for a solid blend of message/story and artistic/technical quality, and ultimately
asks you to consider this question: does the given film combine a strong story or unique vision
with technical skill?
So, the guidelines are fairly basic and easy to assess if you ask it only that way, and honestly, the way that I completed my task for these films was to create my judgment almost right away when the film was finished, fill in the boxes, give it a number, and write a few sentences.
Well, if you follow me as my blog reader, you know that "a few sentences" are not that easy for me, and so it proved true for the festival entries. On about 20% or more of the entries I wrote about, I spent a few paragraphs about them, especially if they were on the extreme ends of the spectrum, either 4s and 5s, or a 1. What I ended up doing so that others may not need to spend a great deal of time reading through all of my comments was summarizing first with a few comments, and then posting the rest of my assessment in another paragraph that started with, "Other Comments, if you care to read them..."
So here is MY personal pick list, and if you're among them and you didn't make it in, sorry, but you did get my support. I'll list the 1st 5 that DID get included in the festival first, by title, style, selected category, Director/Writer, and country of origin, run time:
Guaxuma - Animated - Finalist for Grand Prize - Nara Normande - France/Brazil - 14 min.
Judas Collar - Narrative - Official Selection "Beyond the Healines" - Alison James - Australia - 15 min.
Pinchpot - Animated - Official Selection "For the whole family" - Greg Holfeld - Australia - 5 min.
Reality Baby - Documentary - Wild Card Official Selection - Nodlag Houlihan - Ireland - 13 min.
Patision Avenue - Narrative - Wild Card Official Selection - Thanasis Neofotistos - Greece - 13 min.
Congratulations to those 5!
- Agitatus
Well, if you follow me as my blog reader, you know that "a few sentences" are not that easy for me, and so it proved true for the festival entries. On about 20% or more of the entries I wrote about, I spent a few paragraphs about them, especially if they were on the extreme ends of the spectrum, either 4s and 5s, or a 1. What I ended up doing so that others may not need to spend a great deal of time reading through all of my comments was summarizing first with a few comments, and then posting the rest of my assessment in another paragraph that started with, "Other Comments, if you care to read them..."
So here is MY personal pick list, and if you're among them and you didn't make it in, sorry, but you did get my support. I'll list the 1st 5 that DID get included in the festival first, by title, style, selected category, Director/Writer, and country of origin, run time:
Guaxuma - Animated - Finalist for Grand Prize - Nara Normande - France/Brazil - 14 min.
Judas Collar - Narrative - Official Selection "Beyond the Healines" - Alison James - Australia - 15 min.
Pinchpot - Animated - Official Selection "For the whole family" - Greg Holfeld - Australia - 5 min.
Reality Baby - Documentary - Wild Card Official Selection - Nodlag Houlihan - Ireland - 13 min.
Patision Avenue - Narrative - Wild Card Official Selection - Thanasis Neofotistos - Greece - 13 min.
Congratulations to those 5!
- Agitatus
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